Amelia Boynton Robinson
Awarded for National Visionary Leadership

by William F. Wertz, Jr.

On Oct. 17, Amelia Boynton Robinson was honored in Washington, D.C., at an event sponsored by the National Visionary Leadership Project, co-founded by Camille Cosby and Renee Poussaint. Mrs. Robinson, the 92-year-old civil rights trail-blazer and vice chairwoman of the Schiller Institute, was among an elite group of civil rights leaders over the age of 70, who were recognized for their contribution to the struggle for civil rights in the United States.

The day began with an awards luncheon in the Library of Congress, where Amelia and other civil rights activists, such as Dick Gregory and Dorothy Height (president emeritus of the National Council of Negro Women), received plaques recognizing their national visionary leadership.

The National Visionary Leadership project had conducted a two-hour video-taped interview of Amelia earlier in the year. Video excerpts of the interview are on the organization's website (www.visionaryproject.com). The basic idea is to capture the experience of veteran civil rights leaders on videotape, and pass on that heritage to today's youth, by making the videotapes available to universities and public school systems. The plaques received by the award recipients are a reproduction of the webpage on which their interviews appear. - Summit on Black America -

After the luncheon, a summit was held on the state of black America, during which a few of the honorees, such as former Sen. Edward Brooke, former New York City Mayor David Dinkins, Dorothy Height, former Congresswoman Cardiss Collins, and historian Dr. John Hope Franklin fielded questions from young people in the audience.

In the evening, the event shifted location to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. There, a black-tie awards gala, hosted by Phylicia Rashad, the mistress of ceremony, who played Mrs. Bill Cosby in the comedian's long-running TV show, honored such performers as Ray Charles, Dick Gregory, Jimmy Heath, Geoffrey Holder, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, and Odetta.

This was followed by a dinner-dance at which Amelia B. Robinson was again among the select few who were awarded with a specially sculpted medalion.

Perhaps the most important thing about this event was the fact that its sponsors chose to honor Amelia for her historic contribution to the passage of the Voting Rights Act, and for her continuing work in behalf of human and civil rights as vice chairwoman of the Schiller Institute, in association with Lyndon and Helga LaRouche.

Thank you for supporting the Schiller Institute. Your membership and contributions enable us to publish FIDELIO Magazine, and to sponsor concerts, conferences, and other activities which represent critical interventions into the policy making and cultural life of the nation and the world.

Contributions and memberships are not tax-deductible.VISIT THESE OTHER PAGES: